1899.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 11 



REPORT OF THE HORTICULTURIST. 



SAMUEL T. MAYNARD. 



The work of this division during the past year has been 

 carried on in about the same lines as for the year of 1897. 



Of the experiments conducted, variety testing of fruits, 

 vegetables, flowers, etc., has occupied considerable atten- 

 tion. This work has been undertaken largely in response 

 to the constant calls from the people to know the value of 

 widely advertised new varieties put upon the market with 

 extravagant claims of merit and at exorbitant prices, nine- 

 tenths or perhaps ninety-nine-hundredths of which prove 

 of less value than the old established sorts. 



Fruit Investigations. 



TJie Apj)le. 

 With each succeeding year the fact is more and more clear 

 that old varieties, from the many conditions of cultivation, 

 from increased injury by insects and fungous pests, grow 

 more feeble and are more and more subject to the continued 

 action of the above agencies ; and that new varieties must 

 be found, that can be more easily and cheaply grown, or 

 that will meet the demand for fruit of better quality. The 

 Baldwin apple, for so long a time the most profitable and 

 satisfactory variety for market, has in many places in the 

 last two or three years shown so great a tendency to the 

 dry-rot spots under the skin, long before its normal time 

 for the breaking down of its tissues in the process of ripen- 

 ing, that much of its fruit put on the market has had the 

 efi*ect of decreasing the demand and lowering the price; 

 while the Ben Davis, not nearly as good in quality, but 

 firm, fresh and solid from skin to core, has been sold in our 

 local markets to the exclusion of the home product. 



